Music

From Gregorian Chant to Opera's Origins

Throughout the Renaissance, music formed a central element in the
activities of the curia and a bright thread in the rich tapestry of
Roman religious and artistic life. The singers and composers of the
papal choir -- recruited at first from northern Europe, but in the
sixteenth century chiefly from Spain and Italy -- appeared at daily
services in the Vatican Palace and on greater occasions in the Sistine
Chapel. They performed both the traditional chants of the Middle
Ages, using splendid chant manuscripts, a few of which are exhibited
here, and modern, polyphonic music of great richness and difficulty.

In the course of the sixteenth century, the authorities became
dissatisfied with the traditional melodies, which seemed to obscure
the words of the liturgical texts (humanists and Reformers had long
complained about this). Palestrina and others were commissioned to
revise the Gregorian chants, and the new versions, printed by the
Medici Press in Rome, provided the music that popes heard every day
for centuries. Meanwhile music flourished in other Roman institutions
as well, like the choir of Saint Peter's, which Julius II
reconstituted in 1513, and where Palestrina served as maestro di
cappella.

The manuscripts shown here present only a few samples of the
extraordinary musical life sponsored by the Renaissance papacy and the
remarkable musical libraries of the papal singers. Together with the
image of the papal choir in the Sistine Chapel on display in this
section [Ris. Strag. 7], they give a vivid idea of the ways public
performance and high art could enhance the majesty of the papacy.